Or, El secreto de sus ojos, now showing at Camelview is a terrific mystery/love film out of Argentina. As the film first unfolded, I thought how much it felt like a Law & Order. A little research later on its director, Juan Jose Campanela, explained it, as he has directed several Law & Order SVU episodes (along with several House).
I thought the direction was outstanding; the use of close ups, unusual angles and sudden camera work during a chase through a soccer stadium appeared to be a one camera, seamless shot. Wow. Really different. By now you know I like multi-layered titles, and this had one. Secrets truly are revealed in the eyes, whether secrets of love or fear or rage or violence or deceit. Campanela's use of extreme close-ups that wrapped around a character's head seemed to allow the camera to penetrate the inner soul.
The film was long with stunning twists and turns, and while I am never daunted by captioned films, I thought that, being a mystery, this might require too much attention for my sometimes-short attention span. But I was riveted, and actually, when a foreign film is good enough, I truly forget that it is captioned.
I recommend this movie - solid, captivating, heartfelt.
Seeing it with my spouse, my film blog partner, and his spouse, it earned thumbs up from us all!
Nice comments, film buddy.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed, this mystery is a whopper. As you noted, we forget very quickly about subtitles since we are riveted to the story.
The photography truly adds to the success of the film: the closeups take you into the eyes, and into the souls, of the characters.
The female lead is incredible. As the supervisor of an intelligent detective who secretly (or not so secretly) loves her, she tells so much with her face. She can be angry, perplexed, loving... all at once.
Without spoiling this gem in any way, let me say that the use of time and space to tell the love/thriller tale will bowl you over!
A for this film. And of course, what fun it was to see it with my wise colleague and her spouse!